Pavkovic: There is a risk that Kosovo could end up in a situation where no institution functions at full capacity

The Director of Strategy at the Center for European Policies in Belgrade, Milos Pavkovic, told Kosovo Online that, following the request of the Government of Kosovo for the Constitutional Court of Kosovo to assess the constitutionality of the decree by President Vjosa Osmani on dissolving the Assembly, three scenarios are possible, and that there is also a risk of entering an institutional vacuum in which no institution functions at full capacity.

As the first scenario, Pavkovic says that the Constitutional Court could determine that Vjosa Osmani exceeded her authority, meaning that the dissolution of the Assembly did not occur and that the 60 day deadline for electing a president should be respected, returning the Assembly to session to attempt to elect a president, and only after those 60 days call elections.

“The second option is that the court addresses the issue of quorum and whether members of parliament are obliged to attend the Assembly session when the procedure for electing the president is initiated, while the third scenario is that the Constitutional Court validates the decision of the president of Kosovo and says that the Assembly has definitely been dissolved, that the Government has fallen, and orders the president to set a date for new parliamentary elections,” Pavkovic said.

He points out that it seems the institutional crisis in Kosovo is continuing even though after the formation of the government it appeared that everything was moving in the right direction.

By the very fact that President Vjosa Osmani dissolved the Assembly, he says, it should mean that the government is now in a caretaker status.

“That brings us to a situation where again we have neither an Assembly nor a Government functioning at full capacity. The only political institution in Kosovo that has full legitimacy is the president until the end of the mandate, which expires on April 4. That is less than a month away, and therefore there is a risk that we will enter a situation of institutional vacuum where we have no institution functioning at full capacity. The presidential function would then be taken over by the speaker of parliament, while the Government would remain in caretaker status until elections are held and a new Government is formed,” Pavkovic said.